Chapter 22 - Change Is Coming—Change Is Here

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

["Speech Through Technology"]

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…

'I know I said it once before—but holy shit, that thing is ugly.' I thought as its serpentine neck slowly rose higher into the air.

It had a body like that of a large dog or small bear, maybe even both mixed. It was hairless, with long black tendrils hanging through the air on its back.

It has human-like hands as feet. Its neck was literally that of a snake, and its head held an actual human face, but it was obscenely ugly, like that of an ugly bastard.

From the entrance of the alleyway, I stood, my right shoulder facing the creature, all the while holding my left arm against my side. Clenched tightly in my left hand was a knife I knew went unseen by the enemy.

'This creature seemed hyper-aggressive. From confirmed information gained, it can understand human speech, or at least mine, which gives it enough intelligence to recognize language and have complex thoughts.' My mind kept replaying information in my head as I formulated a plan.

'I think I've got something…'

…

"Three, left snap, clap into guard, cough into guard, and finish with a rapid cough into guard into unblockable!" Dante said aloud, making sure the entire alley could hear.

The creature froze, its head slightly tilted on its serpentine neck as it tried to understand Dante's words. It could understand what he said, but Dante's words were just gibberish.

"Oh? What's wrong?" Dante said as a smirk grew on his face, his right arm slowly rising. "Is the big bad monster a little uncertain? Maybe even a little scared?"

Dante's right arm stretched all the way out slowly and methodically. Once fully extended, Dante made a "come at me" gesture.

The creature, in response, frowned, massive amounts of malice boiling internally, and took a step forward. Yet it went no farther.

"I see. You must be scared of leaving this alley, right?" Dante's face changed at that moment. From a smirk to a disappointed look. "How pathetic."

That happened to be the last straw for the creature. Its body fully turned away from Ashley, boiling with rage, and it scowled at Dante.

'That's what I was looking for!' Dante thought, his outward appearance unchanged.

With the added benefit of the creature looking distracted, Dante rushed forward as fast as he could. The face of the creature changed to a shocked expression as it tried readying its tendrils.

The second Dante got in range, the tendrils lashed out. All eight of them attacked at once!

However, much to the shock of the creature, Dante's momentum halted in an instant. Dante was violently pulled to the left by nothing and suddenly continued his previous momentum. His running was a bit shakier, his maximum speed slightly slower than the speed he was currently running at.

'This is fine!' The creature could only think of that as an appropriate response. It had put all its eggs in one basket and left itself wide open; however, the human it was attacking didn't seem to have a wea—?!

Dante's left hand quickly swung from its position at his side. A knife held in a forward grip came into the creature's vision.

The creature quickly snaked its head back but realized Dante wasn't going for his head; he was going for the neck! In a split-second decision made in desperation to live, the creature pulled back one of its tendrils.

It wouldn't make it! Dante's knife would pierce before the tendril could block!

Was it a slight mistake that caused it to meet its end?

In that moment, the creature had its life flash before its eyes. With a newfound sense of wanting to live, the creature pulled its tendril back in a way that didn't move the tip of the tendril first.

Dante's knife struck deep into the creature. Dante smiled as he realized. All he needed was one clean stab, and it would be over.

Only for his smile to be wiped off his face as the creature wasn't stabbed in the base of the neck. The thicker base of the tendril had blocked just enough for the knife to not stab all the way through to the neck.

Dante and the creature had wide eyes, though for completely opposite reasons.

''I'm alive!! / He's not dead?!'' Both the creature and Dante thought at the same time. Both combatants made eye contact, and that's when Dante realized something.

He couldn't pull out the knife. He had tried to yank it in the least amount of time possible, but from that slight pull, he knew it was stuck.

Taking a hop-step back, Dante grimaced and brought up his guard. Two tendrils instantly lashed out.

Both tendrils swung and hit in an equivalent way to punches. The weight of the hits made Dante's arms feel weak.

Two more tendrils lashed out behind those ones and hit akin to whips. Two lashes struck, one across the forearm and another across the side of his chest.

The creature had learned from its mistake; no longer would it throw out all its tendrils at the same time. Similar to a group of people with guns, it would allow a pair of tendrils to reset as it was firing out another set to make up for the lack of pressure.

As another pair of tendrils came flying toward Dante, he was quickly pulled back by an unseen force without any movement of his own being made.

As the tendrils smacked the concrete, the creature made a face full of confusion. Dante's movements shouldn't be possible. How was it that he was doing that?

Dante's guard, which was already shaky, came down. He was out of the creature's range, but his arms hurt. His arms shook and stung; the side of his chest also stung so badly that it felt itchy.

Dante gritted his teeth as he slowly knelt down, the pain overwhelming him. The creature's malevolent smile had returned, the human was showing signs of damage, and this battle seemed close to over!

Suddenly, Dante's body stopped shivering; the rapid breaths he didn't know he was taking stopped in their tracks, and he slowly began rising from his feet.

Once again, the creature was confused. What was happening? Was this another bait, or was this human stronger than he let on?

For a while now, the creature had been feeling a sensation it hadn't felt before. Looking at Dante's face, this feeling only grew stronger.

Dante was smiling.

It wasn't a soft smile or a smile of confidence. This smile was pure evil, the smile of something taking pleasure in the actions they take.

That was fine to the creature; at least the human didn't have another wea—

"Well," Dante spoke as he reached into his right pocket. "Let's end this, shall we?"

Dante had a wide, almost insane-looking smile as he took another knife from his pocket. This one had a sheath on to make sure it didn't puncture his leg.

The creature, the faux hydra, grew a complicatedly human expression of horror, unease, and anger.

However, it did not get a chance to contemplate as Dante rushed it. Way faster than he previously was, Dante was somehow yanked from the way of the first two tendrils.

The second two tendrils came in whip-like motions once again. Without even looking, Dante was somehow dodging and pulling himself out of the way as he quickly got closer and closer.

Using the rest of its tendrils in more whip-like slashes. The faux hydra's eyes went wide. All it did was blink, so when did the human get in front of its face?

The knife flew toward the creature's chin, once again, held in the left hand. Shock spread across the faux hydra's face as the blade pierced its chin and advanced toward its skull through its mouth.

The faux hydra refused to die like this! Opening its mouth as wide as it could to buy time, it lashed out with all its tendrils.

The knife dug as deep as it could, but right as it was about to break through the barrier of the bottom jaw, Dante was hit with rapid hits from the tendrils.

The first two hits came from above, Dante's head being punched downwards until the top half of his body was almost parallel to the ground. His arms hung in the air, still unsure if they had moved.

The grip on the knife let go after only the first hit.

The next two came, giving Dante more lashes across his body that caused his skin to tingle.

The fifth and sixth gave him two hits, one across the face and the other in the chest. As the fifth one connected to Dante's face, he felt as if his head would spin further than possible and break his neck.

The sixth hit to the chest had him almost standing upright due to the force. It felt as if his ribs were going to crack from another tap.

The seventh and eighth hits sent him flying down the alley the same way he came. Both hit him in the stomach, almost enough to make him throw up as his throat tried desperately to hold it in.

Dante's body did almost a complete stop in mid-air. An instant later, Dante was thrown forward; the second his legs hit the ground, he continued the momentum by running faster.

His smile was wide even though he was bleeding from the mouth. Dante quickly re-entered the range of the tendrils.

The first two tendrils came, and Dante was yanked to the side but continued running forward.

The second two came, and Dante barely dodged by being pushed closer to the faux hydra.

The sixth and seventh came, both coming from the sides. Dante's body was suddenly pulled by the collar. He barely dodged as his body became parallel to the ground as if he was flying.

His leg extended forward, faster than what was possible after both tendrils passed him by.

The faux hydra, its mouth still wide open with a knife inside, stared in confusion. The creature knew Dante was going to take the knife in its mouth and push it upward.

It knew that was Dante's plan, and it wasn't about to let it happen!

The final two tendrils came flying forward, both ready. Every trajectory in which Dante grabbed the knife was prepared for.

It was over! The faux hydra would win! Pulling back its neck as the tendrils lashed out, the faux hydra was assured. This win was guaranteed!

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down as adrenaline for both parties reached its maximum.

The faux hydra's open mouth grew wider as the impossible stared it in the face.

It played in slow motion for both combatants; Dante's body began being yanked upwards. The faux hydra could only move its head and eyes upward to follow as Dante, from the creature's point of view, slowly flew over it.

Being reoriented mid-air, Dante's body was turned 180 degrees so that his upper body would be the last thing to go over the head of the faux hydra and not his legs.

'Where have I seen this before...?' The faux hydra thought cryptically. Dante, with a wide smile on his face, closed his right fist tightly and pulled back as far as he could.

Only one creature fit the same feeling the faux hydra was feeling now.

It was.

'Mon...'

*BANG*

Faster than humanly possible, Dante's fist slammed into the head of the faux hydra. The creature's head slammed into the concrete so violently that when its chin hit the ground, the knife inside its jaw was pushed upward and pierced its brain.

Dante was spinning in circles in midair, and the second he touched the ground, still smiling like a maniac, he pushed himself up and rushed to the downed creature.

With the feeling of his right arm ready to fall off, Dante grabbed the knife stuck inside the creature's tendrils and pulled it free.

Dante's smile was face-splitting as he repeatedly plunged the knife into the creature's skull.

Blood splattering across his hands and parts of his face, Dante kept stabbing as if it was the greatest moment of his life.

Suddenly, Dante felt two hands grasp his face, his eyes going wide in shock.

...

(A/N: Another chapter coming today because Kirby won't stop dropping power stones. Also make sure to point out any writing mistakes. I hate seeing writing mistakes in my work.)